AfricaPage
AFRICA SUB SAHARA The country and regional blogospheres are relatively small and disjointed at present which raises a number of questions. #How can we build more community based blogspheres in the SSA region? #What obstacles do we face in Africa and how can we overcome them? #What changes would we in the SSA region like to see in GV #Where do we see GV going in the future and how can it better support the SSA blogospheres I suggest we use this space to discuss ideas on how we can achieve the above and move forward. Please add your name when you edit or create a new piece. --Sokari RESOURCES Outreach and Training for New Bloggers 10 Ways to Build a Local Blogosphere Instructions for New Bloggers (in Kiswahili) An updated version is on the way! Kenya Unlimited Nigerian Blog Aggregator Blog Africa We need help with updating this! If you find any new Africa blogs please circulate them via the group list. Tanzanian blogs BLOGOSPHERES I thought it would be helpful to look at some of the country blogospheres and try to identify their characteristics, similarities and differences. I have started with five blogspheres, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia,Tanzania and South Africa. KENYA: Large number of blogs (how many?); many by women (what %); bloggers link to each other; Kenyan webring; "tech wizard" able and willing to build reblog online community site - [http://www.kenyaunlimited.com[; bloggers engage with each other in discussions via comments and posts - the recent debate on the constitution is a prime example; variety of blogs - journals, politics, poetry; bloggers in Kenya and Diaspora not sure of the numbers here(SE) NIGERIA: Large number of blogs (how many); relatively fewer women; bloggers do not link to each other as much as the Kenyans; not sure that there is the same level of "country conversations"; quite a few "techie" blogs 2 of which have contributed to the blogosphere - Timbaland http://timba.cowblock.net/ runs a webring Nigerian webring, http://nwr.cowblock.net/index.php?action=listand Kazey http://kayodemuyibi.com/blog.phpwho set up the excellent Nigerian Blog Aggregator, http://www.nigerianbloggers.comwhich also has a blog. Kazey is hoping to develop the project further by having a blog of the week award, blog of the year award, chat room and shop. A variety of blogs - journals, politics, art, literary, tech covering Nigerian, African and global issues; bloggers from Nigeria and the Diaspora. Is there a community here or? (SE) ETHIOPIA: ---- IDEAS The mainstream media in Africa does not seem to be talking about blogging. Do they know about blogs? Should we be contacting them and if so how do we do that - get publicity about blogging? I think one of the ways we can get mainstream news media to talk about blogging is to encourage journalists/reporters to start blogging. This seems to be working in the case of Tanzania. We are also trying to convince radio stations to do blog roundup the same way they do for newspapers every morning. This will help to get the word out there about blogging but also our conversations, ideas, and opinions will be able to reach people without internet access. (ndesanjo)